John Hugh Mather
Physician in ENT Surgery, Tennessee
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Surgery Curr Res
Sir Winston Churchill received a general anesthetic at each of his four surgical procedures. Three were administered in the United Kingdom (UK) for an appendectomy (1922), a right inguinal hernia repair (1947) and a reduction and pinning of a left intertrochanteric femoral fracture (1962). The fourth anesthesia was consequent to a severe automobile accident in New York that required facial surgery (1931). In each instance, in the UK, Winston Churchill had a private surgeon who arranged for a venue for the surgery and secured the appropriate anesthetist. These three admissions for surgery were conducted in private �??nursing homes�?? in London�??s West End (Dorset Square and Bentinck Street) and the third at the private wing (Woolavington) of the Middlesex Hospital, London. The trauma in New York was treated at the Lenox Hill Hospital. The details of the surgical procedures are documented and the surgeons have been well identified. While each surgical procedure was conducted using a general anesthetic, little has been known until recently, or formally recorded, about the backgrounds and proficiency of the several anesthetists and the US anesthesiologist who were involved. This presentation is based on extensive original research and an oral history of one anesthetist. It will detail the credentials of those that provided the general anesthetic, the most likely mode of delivery and the apparatuses used. Specific details of the course of the general anesthesia and the post-operative complications will be explained with the elucidation roles of the several anesthetists and the anesthesiologist.
